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Jake Ramsey
Jacob Jefferson "Jake" Ramsey, the main character of the Dark Templar Saga, is a talented and extremely curious "maverick" archaeologist. He lost many friends when Mar Sara was destroyed by the Zerg and Protoss, and may have been born there. He is over six feet tall ("his only distinguishing feature"), has pale blue eyes, sandy brown hair, and is extremely good at playing poker (counting cards comes naturally to him). Biography Ramsey is a talented archaeologist, but his career was stagnating, partly due to his "maverick" theories. He believed that the artifact discovered on Bhekar Rho was created by an intelligent alien species unknown to the Terrans which may have been the ancestor of the Protoss and Zerg. He was nominated for the Flinders Petrie Award for Archaeological Distinction for his excavations on Pegasus, but didn't actually win the award. Ramsey and his small team worked on the "hell" world of Gelgaris for two years before he received a message from the Terran Dominion. The spokesman identified himself as Valerian Mengsk, son of Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk (much to Ramsey's surprise) and a budding archaeologist. Mengsk told him about the find on Bhekar Rho, along with other such artifacts, created by a third alien race, which he and his father noted were appearing on other worlds. He invited Ramsey to help him uncover the secrets. Ramsey and the younger Mengsk had a meeting. Valerian Mengsk invited Ramsey to visit him and offered him full funding but insisted that Ramsey work with several people unfamiliar with him, not tell them who Valerian was and keep some classified information to himself. Ramsey was hired to unearth an artifact discovered on Nemaka that was related to the one on Bhekar Rho. Valerian and Ramsey toasted to "the discovery of wonders". Ramsey traveled to Nemaka on the Gray Tiger. Speaking to its captain, he discovered that he wasn't leading the first expedition to Nemaka; the Gray Tiger had delivered three previous expeditions there. He was introduced to R. M. Dahl, the beautiful pint-sized leader of a team of private sector mercenary Marines; this came as a surprise to him. He also made friends with Marcus Wright, a huge Marine in excess of six feet in height who was neurally resocialized due to his "past life" as a cannibal (he had tortured, murdered, dismembered and eaten seven people). The Discovery of Wonders As Ramsey explored the artifact, he found a rope laid down by a previous expedition. The rope had become undone, and he attempted to fix it, but suddenly fell through the floor. Then the next floor opened up under him as well. The dual falls twisted Ramsey's ankle. Dahl quickly found him, telling that the ceiling above him had closed up after Ramsey fell through it. Dahl went to fetch a stretcher, while Ramsey hobbled deeper into the temple. He was surprised to find alien glyphs on a wall, so he took a sample. He then stumbled upon the opposite wall, touching it with his bare hand. This caused a glowing rectangle to appear on the wall. As Ramsey recovered, he was given the lab results on the glyphs; it was blood, less than a decade old, and probably Protoss. Ramsey couldn't figure a way to activate the door (other than make it glow). Valerian Mengsk was growing impatient and told him to try thinking like a Protoss (something Ramsey was already trying). One night, Ramsey approached the temple by himself. Ignoring the blue crystals scattered around the temple, he noted a plant fossil, and was struck by an idea. The Golden Mean was a formula found in nature, even on alien planets. It was universal. It corresponded with the plant and the rectangle. Whichever creature had sealed the temple door was using the universal code. Ramsey used the code to draw a Golden Spiral, a combination of the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci sequence (another natural code); the door opened and Dahl surprised Ramsey. (She said she knew he'd try to sneak out sometime, so she stealthily followed him inside.) The interior chamber had scattered "blue singing stones" and spots of dried Protoss blood. Inside was a small vessel, obviously attacked in space, which had crashed within the temple. Nearby they found the crumpled body of a Protoss, whose white and lavender robes were soaked with fresh blood. Ramsey approached to investigate and noticed something unusual - blood was dripping off the Protoss's body, but the drop hung in place, almost as if the body was stuck in a time bubble. The bubble popped. The Protoss awoke, used telekinesis to attack Dahl and used a strange telepathic ability on Ramsey, who was overwhelmed by a flood of memories and passed out. As Ramsey recovered, one of the doctors performed an analysis on him. Ramsey was not subject to an attack; instead, his mind was transforming extremely quickly. The emotion and memory centers of his brain had been altered, along with certain "unused" portions of his brain. Dahl pretended to be concerned about Ramsey, long enough to get a few minutes alone with him, which she used to steal the medical data. She made sure someone else send a report to Valerian Mengsk (she used that time to send her own private report). Betrayal and Alliance Ramsey awoke to overhear his doctor talking ... but shortly thereafter realized that he had become a telepath (the doctor was not talking). When Dahl came to see him, he read her mind; she was going to receive a monetary bonus for "selling" Ramsey to Valerian Mengsk, perhaps big enough to retire on. She alerted the other mercenaries that their cover was blown, so they rounded up the civilians. Meanwhile she told Ramsey point blank what would happen to him - he would be subject to a form of "mental rape" in which every memory of his would be extracted by telepaths, then he and the other civilians would be killed. When Ramsey was momentarily left alone, a voice spoke in his head. Ramsey thought he was going crazy at first. The voice identified herself as Zamara, the Protoss who had died. She offered him assistance against Dahl's team, and would also teach him how to filter incoming thoughts so he wouldn't be overwhelmed. She had to alter his brain so it be efficient at telepathy. Ramsey asked her where those visions were coming from; they were memories, but they didn't belong to Zamara. As a Preserver, she had the ability to hold the memories of other Protoss, and those memories came with her when she took residence in Ramsey's head. Zamara had some important secret she wanted to share with Ramsey and with others, and would allow nothing, not even Ramsey herself, to interfere with this transmission. Dahl took Ramsey to the Gray Tiger, which had arrived to pick up the prisoners... only to be surprised when the Marines it was carrying took her and her team prisoner, too. Ramsey was imprisoned by himself, with his old friend Marcus Wright standing guard (as a resocialized Marine, his allegiance could be shifted, and it was). Zamara had a plan to rescue Ramsey; she would neutralize Wright's resocialization, causing him to run amok. Ramsey wanted no part of the plan, even though Zamara told him that failure to cooperate could harm his brain. He tried to resist, but Zamara was able to use his brain to alter Wright's. Wright underwent a temporary nervous breakdown, then freed Ramsey and went on a rampage. Ramsey encountered Dahl, and the two fled the Gray Tiger in an escape pod, covering their tracks as best as they could. Ramsey fell unconscious however, and he experienced Protoss memories from long ago. Dead Man's Refuge Ramsey spent much time unconscious as "memories were uploaded into his head". The memories centered around a Protoss warrior, Telmaar, a member of the Shelak Tribe during the Aeon of Strife, and his mentor, Savassan. The Shelak Tribe was at war with the other Protoss, trying to guard Ihan-rii artifacts from them. Dahl began to worry; she wanted to keep Ramsey alive because his brain was valuable, and also as a form of revenge against Valerian Mengsk. She also wanted the answers to questions such as what had happened to Marcus Wright? Ramsey spent more time unconscious, dreaming of Telmaar and Savassan's journey to discover new Ihan-rii relics. The two Protoss rediscovered the Protoss psionic link, which would later be known as the Khala. The Khala was almost like merging, and frightened Ramsey. When he awoke, he discovered that he had developed eidetic (photographic) memory, which was painful as it made the deaths of his friends seem even more real. Dahl took the pair to Dead Man's Rock, a world far from Terran Dominion interference. She planned to meet the only person she could trust, her former lover, crime lord and ex-mercenary Ethan Stewart. Stewart tried to prepare a reception for her, but it was blown by one of his former employees and multiple gun-toting enemies. Ramsey's mind-reading abilities proved extremely valuable, as he was able to see through the ambush. Stewart was anxious to meet Ramsey, once he had regained consciousness (he still had memories to process). He had a few unpleasant run-ins with Stewart's servant, Phillip Randall, who kept entering his room unannounced. At an exquisite dinner, Ramsey scanned his mind and found nothing untoward there (for a crime boss); Stewart wanted to use Ramsey's modified brain for his own purposes (such as a "loyalty detector"). However, Ramsey drank too much alcohol and nearly told the whole story of what had happened to him. Zamara told him not to tell Stewart about the contents of the memories, and used a strange ability on Stewart clearing the alcohol from his system. As Ramsey delved further into his memories, he recalled Savassan about to form a deep telepathic bond with his student, Temlaa. Ramsey recoiled from the memory, much to Zamara's disappointment. She told him that she might have chosen the wrong host; the secret she held was contained in the memories of the restoral of the Khala and Ramsey needed to experience them. Ramsey relented and allowed himself to experience the memory. A side-effect of the memory was a strange psychic connection with all the Terrans in Stewart's headquarters. One of them was thinking of how much money they would make betraying Ramsey to Valerian Mengsk. Minds in Conflict Ramsey was able to experience a meeting between Ethan Stewart and his employee, Dr. Reginald Morris, a "mad scientist" and expert on telepathy. Morris was going to scan Ramsey secretly before Stewart shipped Ramsey to Valerian Mengsk. Stewart was able to hide his thoughts from Ramsey by using a psi-screen. The technology was used to protect the wearer from a telepath's abilities, but this one had been modified to allow certain surface thoughts through, such as the "cold-hearted logical" thoughts Stewart had allowed Ramsey to read. Stewart was also planning to betray Rosemary Dahl. Ramsey was only able to read Stewart's thoughts now because of his pseudo-Khala connection. Ramsey tried to bring the evidence to Dahl's attention, but she had known Stewart for nine years and refused to believe him. However, Ramsey did convince her to hack into Stewart's communication network; if there was nothing suspicious there, Ramsey would look like a fool (which Dahl would enjoy). The hack proved that Valerian Mengsk had been in contact with Stewart since at least the day Ramsey and Dahl had escaped from the Gray Tiger (before arriving to Dead Man's Rock). Dahl felt betrayed and turned against Stewart. Together (and with help from Zamara) they plotted an escape. Dahl took down selected security cameras and took Stewart hostage. They needed his DNA, voice and retinal scan to enter the hangar so they could steal a spaceship. Stewart tried to convince Dahl that they could run away together, but Ramsey realized that Stewart had no choice in the matter; if Stewart disobeyed Valerian Mengsk, Valerian would hunt him down and kill him. He told Dahl this (she claimed not to be falling for Stewart's tricks anyway); Stewart was surprised that Ramsey could read his mind and allowed him to read something obscene. They reached the hangar before things began going wrong for them. Stewart had hired an assassin to safeguard him, and equipped him with his own psi-screen. The assassin tried to poison Rosemary Dahl with darts, but Zamara noticed his presence at the last minute and made Ramsey jump in the way, then cleared the drug from his system (to some extent). Zamara used her martial arts skills to fight the assassin, who was himself extremely well versed in methods of killing opponents without using weapons. Zamara, unused to fighting in the body of a Terran, was losing the match. She had to use a powerful psychokinetic technique, which could damage Ramsey's incompletely-altered brain, in order to kill the assassin. Meanwhile, Dahl had defeated Stewart, then executed him. Stealing a system runner, Ramsey and Dahl began their escape, only to be intercepted by Terran Dominion Wraiths and a Valkyrie, which had been sent to Dead Man's Rock by Valerian Mengsk. Engaging the system runner's warp drive took more time than Dahl had; she was preparing to jump blind, an extremely dangerous maneuver. Ramsey tried a novel use of his psychic powers; he created a Khala-like psychic link with all the nearby Terrans, including Dahl and the ones in the small fleet. The cascade of mental connection was intensely distracting, preventing the fleet from fighting back. However, it also caused Dahl to collapse. Ramsey quickly read from her mind how to activate the jump into Warp Space and pressed the button. Desperate Mission Ramsey must seek a valuable piece of Protoss technology, a sacred crystal, on the Zerg-infested planet of Aiur. Beneath the surface, Ramsey must find the crystal before time runs out -- for him...and the universe itself. Ramsey's story will continue in StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters. Team Ramsey's archeological team, as of their arrival on Gelgaris, consisted of himself, 31 other archeologists and "one originally perky and now sullen intern." They were later joined by other scientific individuals selected by Valerian Mengsk. Known teammates include; Leslie Crane Leslie Crane is a more sensitive individual than many of her teammates, visibly spooked by the temple on Nemaka and even having nightmares because of it. At some point on the Gelgaris dig her mother died of a massive stroke. Unfortunatly she could not pay her respects or be with her father as the next ship was eight months away. Darius Greyson Darius Greyson is one of Jake's closer teammates in terms of position, Jake having known him for ten years as of the events of 'Firstborn. Darius is uncouth, cynical and makes no attempt to hide it. At every dig he would have a stockpile of alcohol to help him get through the work. It seemed to pay off as the dig always finished before the stockpile did. Kendra Massa Kendra Massa, like Darius, is one of Jake's closer teammates. Twenty-four at the time of 'Firstborn' and posessing brown eyes she often lamented about the lack of attractive men on dig sites. The result was that she often tried to flirt with any remotely attractive male that came her way, even if her chances of getting anywhere were next to none. Still, at times her passion for archeology would eclipse her sexual ones. Trivia Jake Ramsey was nominated for the Flinders Petrie Award. This may be connected to Christie Golden spending time writing at Flinders Island, Tasmania. References *Golden, Christie. StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga #1: Firstborn. Pocket Star Books, May 2007. ISBN 0-7434-7125-3. Ramsey